Expedition 71

Expedition 71

Expedition 71 crew
Mission type	Long-duration expedition
Operator	NASA / Roscosmos
Mission duration	170 days, 1 hour and 21 minutes
Expedition
Space station	International Space Station
Began	6 April 2024
Ended	23 September 2024
Arrived aboard	Soyuz MS-24 SpaceX Crew-8 Soyuz MS-25 Boeing Crew Flight Test Soyuz MS-26
Departed aboard	Soyuz MS-25
Crew
Crew size	7–12
Members	Expedition 69/70/71: Oleg Kononenko Nikolai Chub Expedition 70/71/72: Matthew Dominick Michael Barratt Jeanette Epps Alexander Grebenkin Expedition 70/71: Tracy Caldwell-Dyson Expedition 71/72: Barry E. Wilmore Sunita Williams Aleksey Ovchinin Ivan Vagner Donald Pettit
EVAs	2
EVA duration	5 hours and 7 minutes
Expedition 71 mission patch From left: Grebenkin, Caldwell-Dyson, Barratt, Chub, Dominick, Kononenko, and Epps with Williams (top left) and Wilmore (top right) Expeditions ←  Expedition 70 Expedition 72  →

Expedition 71 was the 71st long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began with the departure of Soyuz MS-24 on 6 April 2024 ^[1] with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko continuing his ISS command from Expedition 70. ^{[2] [3]} It ended with his departure on Soyuz MS-25 with crewmates from MS-24 and MS-25 on 23 September 2024. ^{[4] [5]}

Background, Crew, and Events

Initially, the expedition consisted of Kononenko, his Russian Soyuz MS-24 crewmate Nikolai Chub (both on a year long ISS mission since 15 September 2023), and his American Soyuz MS-25 crewmate, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, who launched on 23 March 2024, as well as SpaceX Crew-8 crewmates, American astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who launched on 4 March 2024 and were transferred from Expedition 70 after Soyuz MS-24 departure. ^{[5] [3] [6]}

NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams arrived at the station on 6 June 2024 as part of the Boeing Crew Flight Test. Their visit was planned to be brief. ^{[4] [7] [8]} However, due to technical issues with their spacecraft, their stay was extended, and they became de facto members of the ISS crew. They assisted with various tasks, including research, housekeeping, and maintenance. ^[9] On 24 August 2024, NASA announced that the Boeing Starliner spacecraft would return to Earth uncrewed, ^[10] with Wilmore and Williams being formally added to the Expedition 71/72 crew and returning aboard SpaceX Crew-9 on 18 March 2025.

On 11 September 2024, Soyuz MS-26 arrived at the station, transporting Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, as well as NASA astronaut Donald Pettit.

Events manifest

Events involving crewed spacecraft are listed in bold.

Previous mission: Expedition 70

6 April 2024 – Soyuz MS-24 undocking (includes Visiting Expedition 21), official switch from Expedition 70

25 April 2024 – EVA-1 (VKD-62) Kononenko/Chub: 4 hrs, 36 mins

28 April 2024 – CRS SpX-30 undocking

2 May 2024 – SpaceX Crew-8 redocking

28 May 2024 – Progress MS-25/86P undocking

1 June 2024 – Progress MS-27/88P docking

6 June 2024 – Boeing Crew Flight Test docking ^[8]

24 June 2024 – EVA-2 (US-90) Dyson/Barratt: 31 mins

12 July 2024 – CRS NG-20 unberthing and release

6 August 2024 – CRS NG-21 capture and berthing

13 August 2024 – Progress MS-26/87P undocking

17 August 2024 – Progress MS-28/89P docking

4 September 2024 – Wilmore and Williams' seat liner moved from Boeing CFT swapped to SpaceX Crew-8 for CFT uncrewed landing ^[11]

6 September 2024 – Boeing Crew Flight Test uncrewed undocking ^[8]

11 September 2024 – Soyuz MS-26 docking

22 September 2024 – ISS Expedition 71/72 change of command ceremony from Oleg Kononenko to Sunita Williams

23 September 2024 – Soyuz MS-25 undocking, official switch to Expedition 72

Next: Expedition 72

Sources: ^{[12] [4] [13] [3] [5]}

Crew

Flight [4]	Astronaut	Increment 71a	Increment 71b	Increment 71c
		6 Apr – 6 Jun 2024	6 Jun – 11 Sep 2024	11 – 23 Sep 2024
Soyuz MS-25	Oleg Kononenko, Roscosmos Fifth spaceflight	Commander [1]
	Nikolai Chub, Roscosmos First spaceflight	Flight engineer
	Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, NASA Third spaceflight	Flight engineer
SpaceX Crew-8	Matthew Dominick, NASA First spaceflight	Flight engineer
	Michael Barratt, NASA Third spaceflight	Flight engineer
	Jeanette Epps, NASA Only spaceflight	Flight engineer
	Alexander Grebenkin, Roscosmos First spaceflight	Flight engineer
Boeing Crew Flight Test	Barry E. Wilmore, NASA Third and last spaceflight	Off station	Flight engineer
	Sunita Williams, NASA Third spaceflight	Off station	Flight engineer
Soyuz MS-26	Aleksey Ovchinin, Roscosmos Third [a] spaceflight	Off station		Flight engineer
	Ivan Vagner, Roscosmos Second spaceflight	Off station		Flight engineer
	Donald Pettit, NASA Fourth spaceflight	Off station		Flight engineer

Crewed test flight

Mission	Astronauts	Docking (UTC)	Undocking (UTC)	Duration
Boeing Crew Flight Test	Barry Wilmore, NASA Sunita Williams, NASA	6 June 2024, 17:34 [8]	6 September 2024, 22:04 (uncrewed) [8]	93 days
	Besides the expedition crew, a Boeing Starliner spacecraft visited the station for a crewed flight test, consisting of NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams. [8] The spacecraft Calypso [14] launched and docked to the station in June 2024. The flight marked the first crewed test flight of the Starliner. Crew members were scheduled to stay aboard the station for approximately 6 days, but the mission was extended due to issues with the spacecraft. Despite months of testing, NASA felt it was not able to understand why the thrusters malfunctioned and decided that it was too risky to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth aboard Starliner. Instead, they rode down on the SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon capsule, and the Boeing spacecraft returned uncrewed. Until Crew-9 arrived, they along with their seat liners moved to SpaceX Crew-8, their temporary emergency evacuation spacecraft, after which they and their seat liners transferred to Crew-9. [15] It was the first launch of humans from Cape Canaveral since Apollo 7 in October 1968 and first launch of humans from SLC-41. [8]

Vehicle manifest

Vehicle [4]	Purpose	Port	Docking/capture date	Undocking date
Vehicles inherited from Expedition 70
Progress MS-25	Cargo	Poisk zenith	3 Dec 2023	28 May 2024
CRS NG-20	Cargo	Unity nadir	1 Feb 2024	12 Jul 2024
Progress MS-26	Cargo	Zvezda aft	17 Feb 2024	13 Aug 2024
SpaceX Crew-8 "Endeavour"	Exp. 70/71 crew	Harmony forward	5 Mar 2024	2 May 2024 (redock)
CRS SpX-30	Cargo	Harmony zenith	23 Mar 2024	28 Apr 2024
Soyuz MS-25 "Kazbek"	Exp. 70/71 crew, Visiting Expedition 21	Prichal nadir	25 Mar 2024	23 Sep 2024
Vehicles docked during Expedition 71
SpaceX Crew-8 "Endeavour"	Exp. 70/71/72 crew	Harmony zenith	2 May 2024 (redock)	23 Oct 2024 (Exp. 72)
Progress MS-27	Cargo	Poisk zenith	1 Jun 2024	19 Nov 2024 (Exp. 72)
Boeing CFT "Calypso"	Visiting CCDev mission	Harmony forward	6 Jun 2024	6 Sep 2024
CRS NG-21	Cargo	Unity nadir	6 Aug 2024	28 Mar 2025 (Exp. 72)
Progress MS-28	Cargo	Zvezda aft	17 Aug 2024	25 Feb 2025 (Exp. 72)
Soyuz MS-26 "Burlak"	Exp. 71/72 crew	Rassvet nadir	11 Sep 2024	19 Apr 2025 (Exp. 72)

Segment	U.S. Orbital Segment				Russian Orbital Segment
Period	Harmony forward	Harmony zenith	Harmony nadir	Unity nadir	Rassvet nadir	Prichal nadir	Poisk zenith	Zvezda aft
6–28 Apr 2024	SpaceX Crew-8	CRS SpX-30	Vacant	CRS NG-20	Vacant	Soyuz MS-25	Progress MS-25	Progress MS-26
28 Apr–2 May 2024		Vacant
2–28 May 2024	Vacant	SpaceX Crew-8
28 May–1 Jun 2024							Vacant
1–6 Jun 2024							Progress MS-27
6 Jun–12 Jul 2024	Boeing CFT
12 Jul–6 Aug 2024				Vacant
6–13 Aug 2024				CRS NG-21
13–17 Aug 2024								Vacant
17 Aug–6 Sep 2024								Progress MS-28
6–11 Sep 2024	Vacant
11-23 Sep 2024					Soyuz MS-26

The Prichal aft, forward, starboard, and aft ports all have yet to be used since the module originally docked to the station and are not included in the table.

Notes

1. Not counting the aborted flight of Soyuz MS-10.

References

1. Evans, Ben (10 September 2023). "Better Late Than Never: New ISS Crew Prepares to Fly, All-Female EVAs Possible in October". AmericaSpace.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
2. Harwood, William (2024-03-11). "4 International Space Station crew members undock, head for Tuesday splashdown in Gulf of Mexico – CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
3. "Expedition 71 Crew Discusses Six-Month ISS Increment, Crew-9 Announcement Expected Next Week – AmericaSpace". www.americaspace.com. 2024-01-25. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
4. "Complete ISS flight events". NasaSpaceFlight.com Forum. 15 April 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
5. "NASA Expedition 71 Astronauts to Conduct Research aboard Space Station – NASA". 2024-02-09. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
6. "NASA's expedition 71 astronauts prepare for crucial research on international space station". India Today NE. 2024-02-11. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
7. Sturm, Karin (20 November 2023). "Stars aligning for Boeing crew launch in April". NASASpaceFlight.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
8. "Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut launch delayed again, to May 6". Space.com. 4 April 2024. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
9. Donaldson, Abbey A. (8 July 2024). "NASA, Boeing Provide Next Update on Space Station Crew Flight Test". NASA . Retrieved 2024-08-30.
10. Taveau, Jessica (2024-08-24). "NASA Decides to Bring Starliner Spacecraft Back to Earth Without Crew". NASA . Retrieved 2024-08-24.
11. Garcia, Mark (2024-09-04). "Crew Studies Space Effects on Humans, Prepares Spaceships for Departure". blogs.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
12. "Launch Schedule – Spaceflight Now" . Retrieved 2023-02-23.
13. "Microgravity Research Flights". Glenn Research Center. NASA. 10 November 2020. Archived from the original on 18 July 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
14. Dunbar, Brian (December 22, 2019). "Starliner Returns to Earth With a New Name: Calypso". NASA.
15. Garcia, Mark (2024-09-04). "Crew Studies Space Effects on Humans, Prepares Spaceships for Departure". blogs.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-05.